Michael Bahsil because the titular character in “Younger John Lewis.” (All photographs by Casey Gardner Ford)
When John Lewis first sings about “good hassle” in Theatrical Outfit’s Younger John Lewis, his dad scoffs.
“That don’t make no sense. That’s like chilly fireplace,” his father replies to him in a backbeat, sending the viewers into rousing laughter, understanding, after all, that the phrase is now synonymous with John Lewis’ identify.
So goes a lot of the manufacturing, an Atlanta-based world premiere hip-hop musical of the beloved Civil Rights icon who represented town for 17 phrases as its U.S. Consultant in Congress earlier than his dying at age 80.
The roughly two-hour theatrical occasion, operating by means of July 6, is an element comedy and half historical past lesson however largely a love letter to the chief in musical type, utilizing gospel, soul and rap to form the story of a person who impressed hundreds of thousands all through an almost-70-year Civil Rights profession.
Members of the 10-person interracial solid, led by Atlanta native Michael Bahsil as Lewis, play a number of characters, usually demanding a cheat sheet to maintain up with who’s who.
Younger John Lewis will seemingly get comparisons to Hamilton due to its hip-hop aspirations and maybe a little bit Tyler Perry due to a few hovering, God-centered numbers that carry the home down.
However that might be a disgrace as a result of it’s a rousing tribute that may stand by itself if it may well repair a couple of points. There have been instances, on the present attended for overview, when the mics didn’t work fairly as nicely for some members of the solid, and the choreography, although very athletic and fast-moving, may very well be uneven.
However the largest battle can be for audiences who are usually not steeped within the historical past of the Civil Rights motion. There are a variety of names thrown out in the course of the musical — Diane Nash, Jimmy Lee Jackson, Ella Baker, Bayard Rustin — which could not ring a bell with the common theatergoer.
It’s clear that the staff behind the musical — lyricist Psalmayene 24, director/choreographer Thomas W. Jones II and composer Eugene H. Russell IV — reveres the topic. They labored on the play, a part of Theatrical Outfit’s new “Made in Atlanta” work program, for six years and collaborated with The John and Lillian Miles Lewis Basis to color an correct image of the icon.
On this portrait, the “Boy from Troy” is principled, dedicated and steadfast to Civil Rights nearly to a fault. His determination, as an illustration, to affix the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery — in any other case generally known as “Bloody Sunday” — comes off as prescient.
And when a regulation enforcement officer tells him will probably be a chilly day in hell earlier than Lewis and different Black demonstrators can be allowed to eat at a North Carolina restaurant’s lunch counter, he quips, “That can be nice; we introduced our coats.”
The musical covers 13 years of Lewis’ life, starting with the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Until (Terrence J. Smith) and runs by means of the turmoil of the late ’60s.
Until performs a outstanding function within the present; his ghost is each Lewis’ conscience and tormentor, popping up at crucial moments to ask Lewis how his selections have avenged Until’s dying.
The music is strongest when it lets the solid have enjoyable. In “Pricey Troy State,” a bouncy observe in regards to the college’s refusal to confess Lewis, for instance, Bahsil enthusiastically raps, “I do know that you just don’t settle for negroes/however I imagine in brotherhood; we’re all amigos/all of us have crimson blood and related genomes/I do know it’s an extended shot however I’m a torpedo.”
A rap battle between Bahsil and Neal Ghant, taking part in Stokely Carmichael, additionally hits the proper notes. Bahsil’s strategy is extra preacher-like in cadence (Lewis is a preacher, in spite of everything) whereas Ghant’s beats are extra streetwise. Suppose Drake versus Jay Z.
Latrice Tempo as Willie Mae Lewis demonstrates her pipes on the achingly stunning “My Son,” a soul-stirring solo about her fears of sending her son out into an unjust world.
In an effort to be greater than a Lewis biopic, the musical additionally addresses the function of ladies within the Civil Rights motion and the long-standing debate of peaceable protest versus revolution. Sully Brown will get to shock the viewers with a humorous tackle Bobby Kennedy, as he tempts a skeptical Lewis into politics.
Because the Nineteen Sixties finish, Lewis searches for steering. So most of the champions of the trigger are useless, and he wonders the place he suits.
Until tells him, “Don’t let all people down, John. Keep in mind what occurred to me.”
Lewis responds, “I’m gonna maintain making noise. I’m gonna carry on making good hassle.”
The remaining, after all, is historical past.
The place & When
Younger John Lewis is at Theatrical Outfit by means of July 6. Tickets, $55 with reductions accessible.
84 Luckie St.
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Leon Stafford is an award-winning journalist with greater than 30 years expertise at numerous newspapers, together with the Atlanta Journal-Structure, the Lexington Herald-Chief and the Knoxville Information-Sentinel. He has coated municipal authorities, enterprise, training, hospitality and the humanities throughout his profession.